Page 39 of Trust Me

She wondered if that were true.

Not that it mattered at this point. No way was she leaving here with Bassam. Not this time.

Bassam looked over her shoulder and smiled. She realized the SEAL not only couldn’t see Jamal, he wouldn’t have a line of sight on him if he did. Her rescuer was slowly moving forward, into Jamal’s line of sight. And Jamal had an AK-47.

Diana didn’t hesitate, she slashed at Bassam’s neck. Blood spurted into her face.

Bassam let out a gurgling scream. Diana rolled to the side as Jamal fired. His wild shot missed Diana, and hit his dying brother in the head.

Chapter Twenty

The aftermath was a blur for Diana. One SEAL was in her face, asking if she was okay, while the other exchanged gunfire with Jamal.

Then the two men whisked her outside and into a vehicle, leaving Bassam’s body in the stairwell. More SEALs joined them, and she snapped out of her daze to tell them to get Rafiq.

They must get Rafiq, or it would all be for nothing.

“We’ve got a Squad at the compound,” the first SEAL said. He’d raised his NVGs so she could see his eyes, and she could swear it was the same man from the wadi.

“He’s why…why I did what I did. Before.”

“I know.”

“You have to get Rafiq. The SEALs who are searching for Jamal…he’s a kid. Rafiq is more important.”

The SEAL nodded. “You and Rafiq are our priority. With you safe, we’re sending the rest of the Squad to the compound where you were held.”

Diana felt guilty that he and another SEAL were tasked with taking her to safety while the others raided the compound, but at the same time, she wouldn’t have been able to stand being left alone, no matter how secure the place they left her would be.

She’d killed Bassam. Jamal might have fired the shot that officially did the deed, but he’d only shaved seconds off the young man’s life.

Was it weird that she felt bad for both brothers?

Her emotions were in a muddle as she sat in the back seat of a nondescript SUV. Not a Humvee or anything that screamed US military. She wondered where they got the vehicle as they wound through the streets of what she now realized was the outskirts of Aqaba.

She expected them to cross the city and take her to the Gulf of Aqaba and put her on a military ship of some sort, but they went the other way, eventually ending up back in the remote desert.

She had a brief, irrational fear that these men weren’t US military at all and she’d just fallen into another trap.

Like that day at the market. She was caught in a vicious loop.

“Who are you?” Her voice came out low and rough as she forced the words out.

“Navy SEALs, ma’am,” the Black sailor said.

She knew that. Of course she did. But still, the fear nagged.

“I mean your names.”

“We can’t share that information,” the white SEAL said. His face was young. Only a few years older than Bassam, were she to guess.

Her gaze darted to the Black SEAL. “It was you, in the canyon. The one I asked to trust me.”

He nodded.

“I’m… I’m sorry. But I did what I had to do. All this…” Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head, finding the thread again. “It was the only way to find the Four of Diamonds.”

“I know. And if we get Rafiq, it will be worth it.”

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